Books For Parents

Questions about trilingualism?
And what about bilingual learners starting school?
by Colleen Laing and Alice Lapuerta

Young Bilingual Learners in Nursery School
By Linda Thompson

Young Bilingual Learners in Nursery School is a report on the implementation and findings of a study of “the social and linguistic behavior” (p.1) of a group of eight British children of Pakistani origin in preschool. The book is a research report and is not designed to provide direction or guidance to parents and teachers.

The author begins by placing the children’s experiences in the context of Pakistani immigration patterns to England and Pakistani cultural norms around language learning. Another chapter of background information covers the recent history of bilingual education in Britain. Next, the book outlines the theoretical basis for the project and summarizes the work of child development theorists and linguists. A detailed description of the project follows.

The study’s findings relate to how bilingual and monolingual non-English children interact with their preschool environment (time spent on various tasks, how social networks and settings influence linguistic behavior, etc.). The study found a “small but significant increase” (p.197) in the number of English utterances between the beginning and end of the children’s first preschool term and some rather detailed and technical findings about how the children choose between using English and their native language.

Based on the data from the study, the author proposes a “social and linguistic framework for describing an individual’s linguistic repertoire as a linguistic biography” (p. 217). What this means is that the bilingual children studied had a sophisticated ability to choose in what situations to employ which language and that language use in one setting (i.e.: school) will impact language use in other settings (e.g.: home, the community).

Early Trilingualism: A Focus on Questions
By Julia D. Barnes

There is a lack of research on trilingual/multilingual language acquisition, and even fewer publications focus specifically on trilingual children. Since past studies on the topic examined trilingualism within a bilingual framework, and usually focused on the adult individual, this book by Julia D. Barnes fills a gap in the field. In this case study, Barnes focuses on a single trilingual child in the Basque country. She examines the child’s interrogative behavior by analyzing different aspects that influence the development of question forms in English. Issues regarding pragmatic development, communicative competence, and cross-linguistic influence are discussed as well. One particularly interesting research topic is the comparison of trilingual children’s language acquisition to that of monolingual and bilingual children. This book will be of particular interest to researchers and teachers. Parents interested in learning more about multilingual language development from an academic perspective will find this book of great value, as well.

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